Let me say first that I am one of the most devoted Anglophiles in the United States. I've read Bill Bryson's Notes From A Small Island three times, and the only thing I can add is that I'm much more of a soccer fan than he is.

Now let me say this: The people who dole out work permits in England are the epitome of everything that's wrong with England. They are easily the most reprehensible people on that blessed isle, narrowly edging out the people who gripe about Americans calling the game "soccer," track and field commentators, and Tinky Winky.

The latest idiocy from the Home Office (no, not the group that does David Letterman's Top 10 lists) is the decision to deny Bobby Convey the opportunity to play for Tottenham Hotspur. That's the same Bobby Convey who won a starting spot in MLS at age 16 and the same Bobby Convey who has played virtually every game for the U.S. national team in 2003.

If Convey were a goalkeeper, perhaps the bureaucrats would have a point. Including Portsmouth's Shaka Hislop, a Trinidad & Tobago international who played for Howard University, the U.S. has trained one-fifth of the Premier League's netminders. That's bound to violate some sort of government directive.

But when it comes to field players, the U.S. is represented by … well, Claudio Reyna, assuming his deal to Manchester City goes through, and Birmingham City reserve Jovan Kirovski, whose career never fully recovered from a poor decision by the work-permit overlords many years ago.

Even Brad Friedel ran afoul of the wanna-be schoolmasters several years ago, losing his bid to play. Now that he's one of the league's best goalkeepers (last week's mishaps notwithstanding), you'd think the powdered heads would have learned from their mistakes.

Or perhaps they would have noticed that the U.S. has made a habit of reaching the quarterfinals of every world competition in sight. That should be enough to get a precocious 20-year-old from these shores a roster spot, shouldn't it?

If you want a full explanation of the work permit rules, check the Home Office Web site. The brief summary: Start with the absurd requirement of 75% of your team's World Cup, Confederations Cup and Gold Cup games over the past two years. If you're not one of the rare few who meet that, it's a judgment call, and the 75% nonsense gives us an excuse.

Convey failed to make the U.S. World Cup squad at age 19. Most players in the Premier League fall into the same category. It's hardly fair.

The WUSA hit a few lulls in the regular season, but the final was an effective advertisement for the women's game. Abby Wambach left little doubt about her value to the national team, and only the skills of both goalkeepers kept the score low.

Yet the league is clearly at a financial crossroads. The people who spent several years attempting to write MLS' obituary are now rewriting it with the letters "WUSA" instead. While they're jumping to premature conclusions as always, the attendance and TV figures aren't encouraging.

The popular question these days: Should the relatively stable MLS jump in and help? Unified men's and women's clubs seem to be progressing in Europe, but they won't happen here. (Not at MLS level, anyway; they are a fact of life in the lower divisions.)

The better question: What can U.S. Soccer do to help? And what can sponsors do?

The answer lies in the same place as many household solutions. Go to Home Depot. For more than 10 years, Home Depot has employed hundreds of U.S. Olympic athletes, giving them flexible part-time jobs that pay the bills while they work on their skates, sleds and sprints.

Home Depot probably wouldn't want to take on another couple hundred athletes. But why not another sponsor following the same example?

The MISL already has a similar example. The league champion Baltimore Blast has several players employed at First Mariner Bank, where Blast owner Ed Hale happens to be CEO. A national program could help WUSA, MISL and A-League players, not to mention a few people on the bottom end of the MLS pay scale.

Perhaps it's a step down to go from full-time professionals to part-timers with flexible day jobs. But we're not talking about putting Landon Donovan, Mia Hamm or Dino Delevski to work. Many players already need to supplement their incomes with coaching jobs, camps or whatever they can find, and WUSA rosters are too thin to cover injuries or run a decent practice. Having a safety net in place might help talented players keep playing.

And everyone from national-team players to lower-division fans would benefit.

Mailbag

One reader asks a question that hasn't come up in a while: Should the offside rule be changed?

Doing away with the rule isn't an option. Cheap breakaway goals may be exciting at first, but the novelty would wear off soon. Also, the rule gives defenders freedom to move forward without worrying about some guy standing on top of the box. Imagine the game with Roberto Carlos stuck in his own half.

The rule could use a couple of changes, though:

• Instead of judging offside by the "second-last defender," judge it by the last defender other than the goalkeeper. If the goalkeeper makes a mess of things way off his line, the offense should be able to capitalize without stopping to count defenders.

• No offside on free kicks. The rules already make exceptions for goal kicks, throw-ins and corner kicks.

• No offside on rebounds. If a player is not considered offside when the ball is shot, why is he offside when it hits the goalpost or the keeper?

• More yellow cards for persistent offside. That'll cut down on irritating whistles.

Freddy Adu prompted a flurry of e-mail. Some folks think he's overrated because he doesn't pass or play defense. Others think he needs to flee the country immediately to get better coaching. Most of them should take a deep breath and rent Searching For Bobby Fischer to learn about the perils of dealing with prodigies.

Let's agree on one thing: It'll be easier to teach Adu to fit a system than it will to take a random well-schooled youngster and teach him to be Adu.

It's a pity this team couldn't advance past the quarterfinals, but by all accounts, there's little shame in losing to Brazil. The samba won't be stopping with this generation, to say the least.

Odds and ends

File under the "Be thankful for where you live" category: Several players from the Sierra Leone Under-17 team, which lost 2-1 to the U.S. in Finland, apparently have no desire to go home. …

Elias Sports Bureau reports that Washington Freedom teammate Jacqui and Skylar Little are the first twins to win a major U.S. professional team title (baseball, NFL, NBA, NHL, WNBA, MLS or WUSA). That distinction was sure to be awarded in the WUSA final no matter the result; had Atlanta won, Nancy and Julie Augustyniak would've been first. ...

And this just in: WUSA MVP Maren Meinert has changed her mind and will play for Germany in the Women's World Cup. That's bad news for anyone who has to face Germany.